


If Not

by gayalondiel



Series: watsons_woes July 2011 challenge [18]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-28
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 21:49:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayalondiel/pseuds/gayalondiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holmes unwittingly makes a critical error.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If Not

**Author's Note:**

> watsons_woes LJ community posted a daily prompt challenge for July 2011 wherein you had to respond within 24 hours. These are my responses, so they are a little hasty and unpolished. Also damned weird.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** The Holmes characters fall in the public domain and are the creation of the wonderful Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. No ownership is implied or inferred. This is done for love only.

If not for the cocaine, he would have arisen earlier.

If so, his business would have concluded sooner.

If so, he would have been home to receive the code giving the location of the next ‘accident’. Would not be outside his friend’s home, watching the flames lick from foundation to roof, hearing the firefighters shout over the roars flame that nobody could have survived.

If Mary had not insisted on an evening constitutional, the Watsons would not have come running down the street with cries of outrage, and Holmes would not have felt his knees give under him in relief.


End file.
